GET THIS MAN A BREATH-MINT – On Shane Jones’ Proffered Fissile Probing

Earlier this week, I had read in the NZ Herald of Shane Jones reportedly trumpeting the prospect of a nuclear energy policy being considered for adoption by NZ First at its Convention this weekend.

For several reasons, I found this somewhat surprising.

First and most obviously, because that would seem to contrast with the “Founding Principle”, still up on the Party’s website currently, declaring: “New Zealander’s [sic] desire for a non-nuclear future will be respected.”

But second, because if we look overseas – moves in favour of nuclear power often seem to be tacitly (or even expressly) opposed by fossil fuel interests; who then either marshal or manufacture mouthpieces and media-grabs to propel their favoured outcome, accordingly.

Which, if you’ve noticed, is usually (at least, for other matters) what Shane Jones seems to be found doing for said industry here – an effort that’s less ‘subtly seeded astro-turf’ and more ‘one-man mangrove swamp with a megaphone’ and accompanying dinner reservations.

So why would Jones all-of-a-sudden come out with a statement that New Zealand First is seemingly looking to put nuclear power here on the agenda?

It’s true that Jones has previously sought to push for what we might charitably describe as ‘novel’ remedification for our nation’s electricity difficulty – with the present “supercritical” geothermal drilling initiative (which an industry expert had characterized as “a technology that’s unproven internationally, let alone nationally”) being exhibit A.

Yet nuclear power is something fairly ‘sui generis’ when it comes to New Zealand politics and the public perspective. It has a ‘magic’ to it (‘black’, rather than ‘green’) which renders it customarily well outside the bounds of comfort for many … and with a particular emphasis against it from amidst our environmental movements.

For Jones to proffer a seemingly pro-nuclear generation policy smacks of (at least) one of two things.

Option A – he’s engaging in his apparent favourite sport, of Green-baiting; not simply in terms of the instant-uproar from such a quarter which adopting such a policy would induce  (should NZ First choose to do so) – but also through seeking to force the pro-environmental voices of our politics into openly and overtly disavowing a technology being presented as of significant utility in countering climate change.

That is – a gambit aimed at snaring his frog-defending opponents into coming across as empty ‘virtue signallers’ upon a major issue from within their own home turf.

Considering his ongoing grandstanding antagonism about Jacinda – you can just imagine the twist he’d put on ‘climate change as our generation’s nuclear free moment’ for this. (I’m not saying any of the aforementioned as elements which I’d personally agree with – only that it would be the sort of rhetorical invective which would play ‘well’ for some of his intended audience)

And/Or

Option B – he’s preparing the ground (no pun initially intended) for something which could be potentially of more interest for his surreptitious taste in dinner partners. Something along the lines of opening up an opportunity for commercial mining of the uranium (and thorium) deposits to be found on the South Island’s West Coast.

Which, curiously, are featured in an NZ Petroleum & Minerals ‘Prospectivity Report’ for the region, apparently created on the 25th of June this year – the brochure in question advising prospective exploration and/or mining permit applicants as to the existence of “radiometric data show[ing] a dominance of Th[orium] and U[ranium] in some sand deposits along the coast”.

That there exist radioactive mineral deposits in the area is not exactly new information; it’s been acknowledged in GNS reports in the past, certainly.

However, there’s an obvious difference between their being mentioned within scientific survey cataloguing (and featuring, in the case of the 2019 GNS ‘Mineral Commodity Report’, stern disclaimer that for uranium, “there will be no production in the near future due to New Zealand’s [relevant regulation] which specifically does not allow prospecting, exploration and mining of the primary uranium and thorium minerals”) … and their being put forward amidst the (to quote the material) “significant exploration and mining opportunities” which NZPAM wishes to advertise as open to pursue.

That said, per current iteration for the ‘Minerals Programme (Minerals Programme for Minerals (Excluding Petroleum)’ ( 1.6 (3) ) : “Applications for permits for prospecting for, exploring for, and mining uranium and thorium minerals will ordinarily be declined”.

While this would still allow the Minister (guess who) to be able to make extra-ordinary approvals within this area (or, at least, try to) – rather than uranium mining, the main thing it would open up in practice would be an immediate fusillade of Judicial Review applications instead.

Hence, if he were serious about making such a thing happen, the Minister would need to push some small alteration for the relevant regulations (in this case, the aforementioned non-petroleum Minerals Programme – which, per s5(c) of the Crown Minerals Act 1991, he’s responsible for preparing, and per s16(1) can propose changes to) so as to properly secure permissibility.

Presumably, whilst loudly insisting upon a public purpose for which he did so.

Something along the lines of making possible a certain party’s ‘bold’ new proposal for provisioning our power market, perhaps.